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Regional sustainability indicators are increasingly being developed. Their significance becomes obvious when important public policy-making strategies are decentralized to regions or local governments. This research designed a framework for the development of regional sustainability indicators. Its main goal is to assess and report regional sustainability performance, incorporating a significant public participation component. When the proposed approach was tested in the Algarve region, it was found useful to engage a broad range of stakeholders in regional sustainability assessment. This case study is a practical example of how regional sustainability can be assessed as a dynamic participative process, involving multi-stakeholders, to obtain a regional profile. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The increasing use of nanoparticles (NPs) worldwide has raised some concerns about their impact on the environment. The aim of the study was to assess the toxicity of metal oxide nanoparticles, singly or combined, in a freshwater fish (Carassius auratus). The fish were exposed for 7, 14, and 21 days to different concentrations of NPs (10 μg AlO.L, 10 μg ZnO.L, 10 μg AlO.L plus 10 μg ZnO.L, 100 μg AlO.L, 100 μg ZnO.L, and 100 μg AlO.L plus 100 μg ZnO.L). At the end of each exposure period, antioxidant enzyme activity (catalase, glutathione-S-transferase, and superoxide dismutase), lipid peroxidation, and histopathology were assessed in the gills and livers of C. auratus. The results show an increase in catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the gills and livers of fish, especially after 14 days of exposure to single and combined NPs, followed by a reduction at 21 days. An increase in glutathione S-transferase (GST) was observed in gills after 7 days for all tested NP concentrations (single and combined); while in livers, a significant increase was determined after 14 days of exposure to 100 μg.L of both single ZnO and AlO NPs. Lipid peroxidation (LPO) significantly increased in gills after 7 days of exposure to 100 μg.L AlO NPs (single or combined). In livers, LPO increased significantly after 7 days of exposure to all tested concentrations of both single ZnO and AlO (except for 10 μg AlO.L), and after 14 days of exposure to ZnO (10 and 100 μg.L) and AlO (100 μg.L) The results from histological observations suggest that exposure to metal oxide NPs affected both livers and gills, presenting alterations such as gill hyperplasia and liver degeneration. However, the most pronounced effects were found in gills. In general, this study shows that the tested NPs, single or combined, are capable of causing sub-lethal effects on C. auratus, but when combined, NPs seem to be slightly more toxic than when added alone.

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The presence of micropollutants that include endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDC) in aquatic environments is currently one of the most relevant aspects of water quality due to their adverse effects on aquatic organisms and human health. From the several categories of EDC, 17β-estradiol (E2) is a natural hormone, which is prevalent in vertebrates, associated with the female reproductive system and maintenance of the sexual characters. 17α-Ethinylestradiol (EE2) is a synthetic hormone produced from the natural hormone E2 and is an essential component of oral contraceptives. These compounds are susceptible to bioconcentration and have high potential to bioaccumulation. Wastewater treatment plants are the main point source of E2 and EE2 into aquatic environments, but conventional wastewater treatment systems are not specifically designed for steroid removal. To overcome this problem, biological tertiary treatment may be a solution for the removal of emergent pollutants such as E2 and EE2. The main purpose of the present study is to provide a solution based on the optimization of a rotating biological contactor system to remove estrogens, specifically E2 and EE2, and to quantify their removal efficiency on different matrices, namely real wastewater and different synthetic wastewaters. All assays presented viable removal efficiencies for compound E2 with values always above 50%; real wastewater yielded the highest removal efficiencies. EE2 removal had better removal efficiencies with synthetic wastewater as feed solution, with removals above 15%, whereas the removal efficiency with real wastewater was inexistent.